Tyler Smith has described his pride at overcoming chaos in the swim to finish a fantastic fifth at the Europe Triathlon Cup Ceuta on Sunday.

Smith finished just five seconds behind third-placed finisher, Eduardo Blanco Mollá, from Spain and nine seconds behind race winner, Germany’s January Scheffold, after crossing the line in 52 min 3 sec.

In a group of just six athletes heading into the final kilometre of the run, Smith made a bold bid for victory 800 metres from the finish, with his lung-bursting effort just not enough to pull him away from his rivals.

But speaking exclusively to The Royal Gazette on the ferry from Ceuta to Spain after the race, Smith revealed his delight at being involved in the exciting climax to the race.

“I’m really proud of that race, I gotta be honest,” Smith said. “But there's a part of me that really wanted that podium today and I knew I was capable of it.

“It came down to six of us in the last kilometre after 50 minutes of really hard racing and I actually made the first move about 800 metres out.

“I committed because I had the win as a target and that's the first time in a long time I’ve raced with that much courage, that much heart and that much confidence that I'm here to win.

“Unfortunately, the legs went with about 400 metres to go and I just had to hold on for the fifth, but this is definitely my best race of the year.”

Despite making the long attempt for glory before fading late on, Smith has no regrets, although he admits to disappointment at just missing out on the podium.

“The double-edged sword is that the better you get and the closer you get to the podium, the more it stings to be just off it,” Smith said

“If you finish fifteenth and you had no chance, it doesn’t really matter, but when you’re at the front of the race with 800 metres to go and you see three guys outkick you, the harder it is to swallow.

“But I have no regrets because I was going for the win. I don’t have the fastest last 200 metres, so I had to play to my strengths. The one thing that maybe I would do differently is I would have pushed on the pace from 3km to 4km out.

“I was up against a couple of long-legged Germans and I know I’m not going to out-kick them in the last 150 metres, so I did what I knew I had to do and today it didn’t quite work, but maybe one day it will.”

Smith’s effort was all the more meritorious given he left the water further down the field than he was hoping to be after the swim leg, which was changed by race organisers late after weather conditions deteriorated.

“They had to delay the race because there was so much fog that you couldn’t see the turn buoys,” Smith said.

“They had to shorten the swim and make it a two-lap swim, which meant the first-turn buoy was at about 150 metres and with 65 guys at European Cup level, everyone basically gets there at the same time. so it’s just chaos

“I came out a little bit further back than I would have wanted to but it was a super scrappy swim because you’re so condensed when you’re turning at 150 metres with that many guys.

“The organisers made the right decision because we could barely see 100 metres in the water, so for safety reasons they had to shorten the swim. But I moved through quite well in the second lap and through transition and then just worked well on the bike.

“It was great going into the race knowing no matter what happens that I’m going to get myself to the front of this race. That's a good feeling to have.”

Given the form he is in Smith must be hoping that his next race was next week but he has to wait until November to put on the Bermuda vest again

“I’ll finish up the season with some World Cups in November,” Smith said. “There are two in Chile and then one in New Zealand and maybe one in Saudi Arabia, pending airspace closures and the like.

“So now it's back to World Cups and trying to secure those valuable Olympic points but this will give me a good bump in the rankings to make sure I get on those start lists.”